The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier tracks the flight of a fly ball during the eighth inning of a recent game in San Diego. Ethier has missed most of the past two seasons with health issues, but he’s battling for a spot on the postseason roster. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier tracks the flight of a fly ball during the eighth inning of a recent game in San Diego. Ethier has missed most of the past two seasons with health issues, but he’s battling for a spot on the postseason roster. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)

SAN FRANCISCO – After 12 years in the big leagues, Andre Ethier shouldn’t have been surprised by anything when he stepped into the batter’s box at Petco Park for a pinch-hit at-bat on Sept. 1.

Sure, it was Ethier’s first major league at-bat in about 11 months, thanks to a herniated disc in his back that sent him to the sidelines for more than 80 percent of the regular season for a second consecutive year. But Ethier had been there, done that – literally – for more than 1,400 games in a Dodgers uniform (only six players have worn the uniform longer since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958), more than 80 of them as a visitor at Petco Park.

What happened still surprised him. An ovation. A large one.

“That was very shocking,” Ethier says now. “I know we get a lot of Dodger fans there. We always do. But I didn’t realize there were that many there until I stepped up to the plate. As loud as it got, that took me back a bit.

“For our fans to still embrace me that way and show that acknowledgement. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get to me. It was as emotional an at-bat as I’ve had.”

The ovation was repeated, more loudly, a few days later when he played at Dodger Stadium for the first time this season. The applause was acknowledgment of a career that includes two All-Star nominations, a Gold Glove award and a Silver Slugger. But there was also an element of surprise – Ethier has missed so much time the past two seasons that some fans, no doubt, thought he might have retired.

There is also a farewell-tour feeling to it. Ethier is in the final year of a five-year contract that will have paid him $85 million. There is a $17.5 million club option for next season. Few things in life are guaranteed, but you can make book on this – the Dodgers will not pick up that option, opting to pay Ethier a $2.5 million buyout instead.

So what is next for one of the more popular and productive Dodgers of the past 60 years?

“I really haven’t thought about it. I’ve just been focusing on what I can do to get back each day,” he insisted. “That’s honestly been what my fight’s been all year until today.”

Ethier said he made the decision this spring – before the disc in his back did to this season what the spiral fracture in his tibia did last season – to put aside thoughts about the future, afraid it would “consume” him and prevent him from “just going out there and enjoying playing the game.”

“I’ve had these thoughts and conversations coming into this season,” Ethier says. “I told them (the Dodgers’ front office). This isn’t my last. This isn’t me playing for another (contract). I’m not saying I’m going to play for another two, four years. We’re not saying anything. We’re just going to play it out and two weeks after the season or whenever you have to make those decisions … I’ll make my decision then.”

Ethier says he feels healthy and strong, nothing more than the normal soreness a 35-year-old has the day after a game. And he unquestionably believes there is more baseball left in his body despite the setbacks of the past two years.

“Oh, 100 percent. I believed that last year when I came back,” Ethier says. “Whether more baseball is this month or until the end of October, I don’t know.”

Neither do the Dodgers. Curtis Granderson’s slump and Joc Pederson’s regression have muddled the Dodgers’ thinking when it comes to the left-handed outfielders on their postseason roster. Dave Roberts said he will give Ethier a start Friday (his fourth this month) when the Dodgers face the first of three consecutive right-handed starting pitchers in Washington.

“We haven’t seen him in two years,” Roberts says. “He’s very good on the team. When he’s on the field, I think he gives us a good chance to win and I love him in the batter’s box. The challenge is to try to keep him as current as possible – getting him pinch-hit at-bats, getting him starts.

“But we also have to be mindful of what he’s been through to get back and the physicality. To expect him to play every day against right-handed pitching, I don’t think anyone can expect that.”

Ethier doesn’t know what to expect this winter. He might think he has more baseball in him – but does another team? The market for 35- going on 36-year-old outfielders – even ones who don’t have the baggage of Ethier’s recent health issues – is not strong.

“I don’t know. It’s out of my hands,” he says. “This game has changed so much since I started. I’m not saying you’re owed anything or not. Guys my age and where they’re going to be next year would have still gotten shots from teams. I understand the control-ability of players now, the youth movement, all that stuff. That’s a big factor moving forward.

“I just look around at guys that are even healthy. A guy like Adam Lind who’s been compared to me … couldn’t get a job until the end of spring training. And he had a good year the year before. He had a good year this year but he had no contract going in. A guy like Chris Carter hit 40 home runs last year but he almost couldn’t get a job. You see that stuff. … I know those are the realities. Who knows what teams think? I know there’s a lot of intangibles that players offer to teams. Hopefully some of those I have to offer.”

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.

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